We’re a couple of fifty-somethings who realised (to quote someone whose name I can’t remember): “The hours seem to be dragging but the years seem to be flying“.

We’ve spent 28 years camping, almost every year, in France. There was a bit of UK in there and a bit of Spain but mostly France.

We started with a basic frame tent stuffed in a Talbot Avenger and ended up towing a vast Conway Crusader “Folding Camper”. Basically we’ve served our time under canvas.

As long as we’ve been camping we talked of moving to a Motorhome. I’ve lost track of how many Sundays we’ve found ourselves at Motorhome dealerships. After so long looking at, and discussing, Motorhomes it’s just time we found out, one way or another.

We are now at the (very fortunate) stage where the mortgage is paid and the house is ours (strange feeling after a third of a century paying a mortgage).

As of September 2018 we are both retired and our two children are adults and independent.

To be retired in our mid-50s with no mortgage is a priviledged position and not one to be squandered by watching daytime TV.

In August 2016 we decided that it’s time to do something about changing our lives The first part of which involved actually getting a Motorhome. After months of looking through Auto Trader and looking around Dealer forecourts we found the Motorhome we both liked, a 2008 Hymer B544 SL

It seems that any Motorhome is a series of Pros vs Cons and it’s a matter of getting as many Pros ticked as possible and living with the Cons. It always comes down to internal layout vs external size. It’s simple enough to get a perfect internal layout but you end up with a huge vehicle. Conversely if you choose a small, manageable vehicle you end up with a cramped interior. There’s nothing for it but to spend a long time comparing vehicles.

The Hymer B544 has a very large interior for a 6.5m chassis but at the expense of having no garage. That’s our particular compromise, we wanted interior space and a fairly short vehicle. Something’s got to give.

Ta-Dah! …..Humberto (“Eight years old and HOW BLOODY MUCH?.. is that in Pounds or Lira?”)